Jason Smith Capitol Report: Looking for hope from the bottom of the cliff

This week the United States Congress caved into the demands of President Obama, raising payroll taxes on all Americans (the average family will lose about $1,000[1]) and re-instituting the marriage penalty. This was in addition to increasing spending on social welfare by 330 billion dollars.

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By State Rep. Jason Smith

The Rolla Daily News - Rolla, MO

By State Rep. Jason Smith

Posted Jan. 3, 2013 at 6:00 PM
Updated Jan 3, 2013 at 6:04 PM

By State Rep. Jason Smith

Posted Jan. 3, 2013 at 6:00 PM
Updated Jan 3, 2013 at 6:04 PM

This week the United States Congress caved into the demands of President Obama, raising payroll taxes on all Americans (the average family will lose about $1,000[1]) and re-instituting the marriage penalty. This was in addition to increasing spending on social welfare by 330 billion dollars.

Congress allowed the President to get $10 in tax increases per $1 in spending cuts.[2] This is the opposite of traditional Conservative thinking. “In 1982, President Reagan was promised $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes,” according to Americans for Tax Reform,[3] “The tax hikes went through, but the spending cuts did not materialize. President Reagan later said that signing onto this deal was the biggest mistake of his presidency.

President Reagan agreed to a deal that he thought would cut three times as much money from the budget as it increased in taxes. Congress has agreed to a deal that increases taxes ten times as much as it cuts from the budget. In terms of a ratio – Congress has agreed to a deal that raises taxes 30 times as much as what President Reagan would have wanted.

Folks, Washington DC has lost its way – but we can do things on the state level to try and fix the problem. All too often politicians forget that the states created the federal government – the federal government did not create the states.

In 2012, President Obama suspended the welfare work requirements that we passed in the 1990’s. This was the law that required individuals receiving welfare to look for a job, seek job training, go back to college, or fulfill other similar requirements that indicated they were trying to work.

We can implement these requirements at the state level so that Missouri does not send welfare dollars to individuals who are not trying to find a job. Last year the Missouri House passed requirements that welfare recipients must be drug-tested, and this New Year we can make sure that individuals who don’t even want to try and find a job will get kicked off of welfare for abusing the system.

The night is always darkest before the dawn – though the federal government does not seem to care about the interests of Missouri, or most of Midwestern ‘flyover’ country, there are common-sense solutions that we can adopt to help weather the storm and protect ourselves.